Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Weibo Co. (NASDAQ:WB) shares gapped up prior to trading on Monday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $11.00 to $12.00. The stock had previously closed at $9.91, but opened at $10.46. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Weibo shares last traded at $10.77, with a volume of 1,627,629 shares trading hands.

WB has been the topic of several other research reports. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Weibo from $8.00 to $7.50 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Nomura Securities raised shares of Weibo to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $10.23.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Weibo

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its holdings in Weibo by 226.3% during the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 246,841 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,703,000 after purchasing an additional 171,188 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its position in Weibo by 79.4% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 112,397 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,231,000 after acquiring an additional 49,742 shares during the last quarter. Ghisallo Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Weibo in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,521,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Weibo by 199.1% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,075,326 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $33,675,000 after purchasing an additional 2,047,135 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd grew its position in shares of Weibo by 47.8% in the fourth quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 48,602 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $531,000 after purchasing an additional 15,715 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.77% of the company’s stock.

Weibo Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.34, a quick ratio of 2.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.53 billion, a PE ratio of 9.08, a PEG ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.22. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $7.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $8.36.

Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 22nd. The information services provider reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.10. Weibo had a return on equity of 11.01% and a net margin of 18.52%. The company had revenue of $437.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $437.97 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.42 earnings per share. Weibo’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Weibo Co. will post 1.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Weibo Company Profile

Weibo Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates as a social media platform for people to create, distribute, and discover content in the People's Republic of China. It operates in two segments, Advertising and Marketing Services; and Value-Added Services. The company offers discovery products to help users discover content on its platform; self-expression products that enable its users to express themselves on its platform; and social products to promote social interaction between users on its platform.